


Buttons and Bad Spelling

by lunamoon303



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 16:38:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6527806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunamoon303/pseuds/lunamoon303
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A longer piece I did for one of the several writing classes I've been in, at some point I plan to rewrite this and flesh it out more</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. All in the Job Description

The night air was still and cold, the soft lamplight flickered and cast dancing shadows across the darkened walls of the bedroom, everything was nearly silent in the house that you watched, excluding the soft snores of your charge behind you and the gentle sounds of a home at night. You balance precariously on the edge of the bed, cherry red eyes straining to see in the darkness; everything about tonight doesn't feel... the same as it has since you woke up in the arms of your assigned kid. That's all she is to you really, a job, someone to protect and watch over until the end of your days. That is, if your days had an end to them anymore. You find yourself absently running a finger along one of your seams and shuddering, you felt so awkward and unnatural in this body, even if you could barely remember your first one. This body was made of cloth and thread, your soul resided within this fabric prison and gave you the ability to move and talk as if you weren't just some fancy toy. You were a living doll, tasked with keeping nightmares away from the child assigned to you, by the one who made you; you hated this job, as easy as it was.

A sudden dull scratching from the other side of the closet door has you stiffening, was it sudden? Or had you been so lost in yourself that you just didn't notice it was there until now? The scratching rises slightly in volume and your large ears twitch in annoyance, didn't these creatures know by now that they weren't going to get past you? They probably did, but nightmares were a very stubborn species you supposed,"Stubborn and stupid..." You mutter to yourself, you watch the closet door handle slowly start to turn as the creature behind it grew hungry and restless, you could hear it's claws scrape the wood of the door as it forced it open; they usually didn't take this long. It wasn't a very big nightmare, you could tell by how slowly it moved, how careful it was. Only the small, scavenger classes moved that way.

It looked vaguely canine as it made it's way into the open, the skull of a small dog served as its head and several small bones were scattered throughout it's fluid black hide, they clicked as on the cold floor, as it's claws scraped along, _scrape-click scrape-click scrape-click_ , such a annoying sound. You wrap both of your hands around the handle of your spiked club as the creature finally senses you and starts to growl, it baffles you how it didn't notice you before, clearly standing on the bed illuminated by the only light source in the room.

"Took you long enough, I've been standing here for ages, I mean come _on_ , I knew you guys were stupid, but not _this_ stupid." It growls louder at your insult,"My my, have I struck a nerve? Why don't you come here and do something about it fido!" You sneer.

It takes you up on your offer, lunging at you with skeletal jaws gaping wide and ghostly claws outstretched. You wait for the right moment, and then, you grit your teeth and swing. The nightmare's yelp of pain is drowned out by the satisfying CRACK of your club connecting with it's skull. The beast goes down and evaporates, leaving only it's stolen bones behind and a smug smile on your face. Still, even with the first nightmare of the night under you belt you still don't feel like you should, it went down too quickly, it came at you so easily and didn't go for the kid at all. 


	2. Thief in the Dark

You look up from the cracked skull and smaller, almost dissolved bones of the slain beast and up into the closet, and the creature that stands there is unlike anything you've ever seen; the empty sockets of it's lupine skull seem to burn into you as they watch your each and every movement, it's body shifts and changes fluidly and it seems to ripple like the surface of a pond as it advances towards the bed and the child sleeping in it. You mutter a swear trying to swing when it get close enough, it grabs the club before it connects and rips it from your grip before tossing you in the same direction. You collide with your kid's tea set with a crash loud enough to wake her up, you know you've woken her by the sharp scream that reaches your ears from the jumbled heap you lie in.

The sound is hazy, and rather far away it seems. You shake your head to clear it and smack yourself in the head with a child's tea cup, the noise is still there, but much louder now. A shrill and repeated screaming.

"M-Mimi.." You mumble hoarsely as you struggle to drag yourself upright and get your bearings. The room was messy to start with, but now it's in shambles. The nightmare is hasn't left, with your assigned child, your Mimi in his vile, inky claws. You fling yourself at him without thinking, completely unarmed and he bats you away with little effort before turning and dragging you child back into the seething darkness within the closet from whence he came. She screams for you, for help, and for her mother too, if you had a stomach it surely would have twisted. You glance around for your club and manage to locate it under the disrupted tea set, you race after the nightmare with weapon in hand, the closet door slamming behind you with a very finite sounding slam as you were engulfed in thick, oily blackness. The thought of how much you really hated your job came flying back at you like a boomerang, as much as you liked the benefits that came with your job, you were starting to question if it was worth all of this trouble.


	3. Lost in the Void

"Mimi?! Mimi where the heck are you?!" You shout into the void as you trudge forward, unsure of what you were really walking on. You curse yourself for being so distracted, _'This is all your fault, you should have set up more lamps, you should have locked the closet door, you should have, you could have',_ the words circle through your mind over and over again, and you swallow the rising guilt with practiced ease. With the guilt forcibly receding, you try to focus on finding a way out of the darkness, squinting hard as you waved your free paw in front of you in order to feel your way along. Your paw brushes something cool and scaly, you squeal like the frightened mouse you are and jump back, barely registering the startled yelp that came from whatever it was that you bumped into.

"Wh-who's there?" Came a trembling, yet forceful voice, as if it's owner refused to acknowledge their own fear. You almost chuckled, if this was a nightmare, they weren't very frightening.

"Someone you should be running from, most likely." You hiss at the scaly, scared thing in the dark. The other being hisses back and a small jet of orange flame suddenly illuminates the darkness as it is aimed with surprising accuracy at your face. You gasp and tumble to the side to avoid burning alive, the flame makes you and your attacker visible for a brief moment. Curved black claws, slightly unfurled wings, a mouth full of sharp teeth, scaly smooth skin and a set of horns atop _her_ head, for she was undoubtedly female. That was a _dragon_ , an actual _fire breathing_ _dragon_ , albeit a rather small, stuffed one on two legs, but a dragon none the less. She aimed another blast at you as soon as the first had gone out, this one singeing your fur and almost blinding you with it's brightness. You try to dodge and end up flat on your back, like an unlucky turtle, paws up defensively, as the dragon comes closer and closer. The glow of her flames lit up her face from just the right angles to make her look terrifying and murderous in the otherwise black and bleak landscape the two of you were in,

"Wait!" You shout, bunching up as she inhales, preparing to end your rescue mission prematurely,"Wait..." You watch her stop, watch her fire dim and see the contemplation in her slightly glowing eyes, she seems to be studying you, her body relaxing as if she deemed you less of a threat. Soon her flames were fully extinguished and only the smell of smoke and the sounds of her feet coming towards you in the ever present darkness were all that remained, she felt around for you and hauled you back onto your feet. She was warm and intimidating up close and smelled like a bonfire, where as you probably smelled like chocolates or cupcakes, or something,

"C'mon." She rumbled softly, having lost her earlier frightened tremble. She had a grip on your wrist as she quickly tugged you through the murky darkness that surrounded you both,"We need to move, now."

"What? Why?" You're confusion and clinging wonder still apparent. She glances back at you,

"As dark and quiet as it is, my fire and your bumbling about could have drawn, _unwanted attention._ " Your eyes widen and dart about, as if you could actually see if anything was coming towards you in the dark, no wonder the nightmares liked it here so much. The sound of something slithering in the dark makes you stiffen and you tug on the dragon,

"U-um, u-uh." You stammer and glance around, she can obviously tell that something's wrong.

"What's your name?" She asks you as the two of you break into a sprint as the slithering gets closer and closer

"Krispy." You curl your lip,"Krispy Cream." To your surprise she doesn't laugh

"Hello Krispy, my name is Spitfyre, you're a doll aren't you?" You make a sound of conformation and she continues speaking,"Thought so, I am too, I also take it that your child was stolen by the nightmares as well." You don't get a chance to answer, whatever it was that was following you hits the both of you from behind hard enough to send the pair of you tumbling out of the cloying darkness and onto a hard wooden floor, or at least what felt like one.   


	4. The Nightmare King

Lamps sprung to life all around you, momentarily disorienting you, Spitfyre hissed in discomfort and you could hear the sound of someone chuckling,

"Enjoy your little ramble in the void did we?" The voice rumbles and echoes eerily within the space, the sound makes you shiver and you at once know who it is. You glare at the beast that took your kid, he sat on a throne of bones with something small in the shifting shadows of his lap,

"Oh yeah, it was fun, great exercise." You sneer at the nightmare,"YOU HAVE FUN IN THAT CHEAP LOOKING SEAT OF YOURS?!" You bellow as you lose what little cool you have left. The nightmare king, for that is what he looked like upon his grisly seat, seemed no less amused and even chuckled more,

"Yes, that I did." He strokes the small thing in his lap,"We all did, didn't we children?" The robotic replies of terrified children came from the shadows behind his throne and a line of pale, and traumatized kids soon emerged. Mimi was not among them. You looked at the small thing again and recognize your kid's polkadot pyjamas and feel sick, she's not moving. You try to push down the rising fear, guilt and regret, almost to no avail until Spitfyre touches your hand very gently and you feel some of that fear drain away. You were not alone, you could do this.

"Are you afraid little mouse?" Purrs the nightmare king and you scoff,

"Scared? Why would I be scared?" Your ears fold back some and you look surprisingly bored,"I mean c _ome on_ , this place is a dump, I mean...really? Bones? How cliché is that? Clowns would be scarier, or giant spiders, but you just had to go with the haunted house down the street motif. Are those candelabras even real? Because they look more like someone stripped the cloth off an umbrella, hung it upside down, and shoved candles on the tips." You gesture, "I mean, look at the floor, there is wax everywhere!" One of the children snickers and Spitfyre urges you on.

A smirk starts to form on your face and the nightmare king growls, getting smaller and smaller the closer you get and the more you say,"And you, you must think you're pretty big and bad over there on your stupid little bone pile, but I don't think so. You think that you're scary, but I'm not afraid of you," You take a few steps closer and the king seems to shy away from you,"You took my kd from me," You hitch a thumb at Spitfyre behind you,"You took her kid and god only know how many other dolls are freaking out because of you. You see b _uddy_ ," The wolf skulled nocturnal horror getting smaller and smaller the closer you get,"You really shouldn't touch things that don't belong to you, especially _my_ things." You heft your club as you finally stand close enough to the shrunken king, who was now little more than a slithering black worm within the safety of the skull,"You know why you don;t touch my things?" The little black worm shook its head',"I don't play nice." You raise your club above your head and bring it down as hard as you can on the top of the nightmare's skull, shattering it beyond repair.

You turn to your unmoving girl and feel the guilt rise like the sun at dawn within you. You kneel next to her and put your hand on her shoulder,"Oh Mimi..." You hesitantly give her a hug and feel her stir, upon closer examination she appeared to be mostly fine, if a bit mentally scarred from the ordeal. You take her hand and get her to her feet,"C'mon you dweeb, we gotta go home, your Ma is gonna shred us both if she finds out we're gone." _That is if the screams of her child getting kidnapped and her living doll trying to fight off her attacker didn't wake her first..._ the thought circles in your head lazily, but you don't voice it, you glance up to see other dolls coming out of the void and rushing to their kid with faces full of worry and relief. You see Spitfyre too, and her kid with their dandelion hair and striped PJ's. She waves a goodbye to you as the blackness between this realm and the one you came from swallows her and her kid both, it makes you sad.

With a sigh you tug Mimi along as the place starts to empty. You lead her into the thick dark and she holds your hand like a vice, you do your best to keep her calm until you stumble out of the void into her bedroom closet, you lock the door behind you and get her into bed. She refuses to shut her eyes, you honestly don't blame her, you kiss her forehead and clean up the mess you made fighting that beast before going back to Mimi. You let her hold you as long as she need to, her big blue eyes finally close and her breathing starts to deepen and even out. Relaxation washes over you and you close your own eyes, you don't dream anymore, but you really don't need to now that your girl, your Mimi, was safe.


End file.
